Suggestion: GitHub Organization & LPC Team + Repository
I want to suggest starting an organization on GitHub, either for OpenGameArt.org itself or the Liberated Pixel Cup. I think it would be a good idea to keep a repository & team for LPC assets. There are many LPC assets available on OGA, but some of the attributions are getting obscured. I think keeping a controlled central repository for these assets would help clarify & keep track of who the original authors are.
I have created the OpenGameArt organization on GitHub, & I would be happy to turn it over to an OGA admin.
An alternative would be to use SourceForge. But I would recommend GitHub. SourceForge can always be used as a mirror as well.
I don't want to take credit for this idea. I think bluecarrot16 or ElizaWy may have been the first to suggest it: https://opengameart.org/node/81422#comment-66039
You know I'm all for LPC asset management. :) I'd gladly help; I meant to do it myself, except my heath's been bombing so bad the last few months.
In any case, I'd love to discuss how things could be sorted most efficiently and help out on a team?
ElizaWy, is this your GitHub profile?
https://github.com/ElizaWy
Oh man, way back when. I hardly used it.
Let me check if I've got another under another account. :)
Yeah, that's my GitHub account. I haven't used it since I got sick, so I'm super rusty, but it's got the right email and such.
Ooh, I found daneeklu's profile too. :)
Nice. An OGA github account is not a bad idea.
Is this just to solve the issue with LPC assets and attribution? I'm skeptical that a code repository is a better solution than an art repository. I'm not saying there aren't issues with tracking attribution, but I think those same issues may still be present under github.
We already have a method of collecting and tracking attribution of all LPC submissions: the art collection system. I think it isn't being fully utilized to solve this issue. That's actually why I stated:
Art in a collection automatically generates a credits file of all the art it contains. If attribution is still not clarified by having a collaboratively curated LPC collection, I don't think that's a function of where the art/attribution is hosted. The attribution information needs to be worked out and corrected regardless of where the central source of LPC credit information is housed. Probably on the submissions themselves first.
There are several LPC art collections and it isn't clear which is the best, or most complete, or the most official collection. We definitly should figure that out as well. Art collections can have any number of collaborators that can help curate the various LPC components. We should probably get all the people willing to be collaborators on whichever such collection is deemed "most LPC"
--Medicine Storm
I think those are great points, MedicineStorm. We should definitely work on fixing the attribution problem(s) in submissions. Maybe we could make a separate topic for that---there are a few that definitely need fixing, and a few (including my own) which probably deserve a look by someone else to make sure the attributions are correct.
I also didn't realize that multiple people could collaborate on collection(s). I agree that elmerenges collection looks pretty comprehensive, maybe someone could reach out to them and ask to add some collaborators. The main issue seems to be ensuring the collection is kept up to date, even if the original collector becomes inactive (for instance, Pennomi had a collection of all the LPC assets, but they don't seem to be active anymore).
I think a repository could still be valuable for two reasons:
1) the attribution information could be standardized (e.g. in a table or standard text format, like many open source games do); this would allow the attributions to be dropped in to a project rather than being manually curated each time from the credits.txt file. It would also allow us to fix attribution information on submissions where the original author is not cooperating. I admit this is only a marginal benefit over just collecting art on OGA.
2) It could allow an additional level of curation; for instance, there are some submissions of quite different style, still tagged as "LPC;" for instance, compare this livestock submission to this one. Both fine pieces of art, but probably not belonging in the same game. Then there are some submissions which attempt to collect lots of similar/related pieces together and coerce them into a compatible style, like some of mine. Then there are those that lump a whole ton of assets together into one or a few spritesheets (in my personal opinion, these aren't terribly useful, as different games will have different requirements, and they seem to be causing some attribution problems). However, I'm not sure this type of curation is something that should happen in an "official" "OpenGameArt" repository, because there will almost certainly be differences of opinion, and it's unclear to me who would resolve them.
Perhaps, somewhat like makrohn and jrconway3's repositories for character sprites, we could standardize some system of organizing assets, but again this is an opinionated process. There could also be varying degrees of "QA" like what Eliza's been doing with the bodies. Certainly could be fun and potentially useful, but I think it will definitely be opinionated, and I'm not sure it belongs in an official-sounding location like github.com/opengameart/liberatedpixelcup .
I'm on it. :) However, there are several LPC collections. Do we all agree that one is the "best"?
Good point about differing art styles possibly not matching the LPC feel, but tags do not determine what is in an art collection, the collection owner and collaborators do. I think if all collaborators are using the official LPC styleguide it should be pretty easy to determine what does and does not belong in the collection.
Not sure I understand the nature of this problem. Are you unable to drop attributions into a project currently? If you're using an asset with a credits.txt file, why would you be manually curating it? Don't the multiple authors all still apply to the entire asset? Also, I may be able to help fix attribution on submissions with uncooperative submitters. I don't know of any such submissions though. Examples?
The auto-generated credits file for collections has a pretty solid format for attribution. However, the special instructions often refer to a credits.txt on the submission itself. This is usually because LPC assets tend to have a LOT of authors, so they would be far too lengthy to list in the special instructions section itself. Is this something you foresee having a reasonable solution? I'd like to hear your ideas on that too.
This is fun! I think these are good ideas and it's going to have productive results no matter what direction it takes. :)
--Medicine Storm
I have currently been adding original LPC tilesets from the asset list page to the GitHub repository. I don't know that I'm doing it the best way. I'm just trying to get a start going so we can figure out for sure if this is good idea. I personally think it is. I'm using a simple markdown text for listing attributions.
Perhaps as far as Git repository is concerned, we could use Sphinx like is done with the current LPC attributions page for compiling attributions.
Edit: I'm not familiar with Sphinx though. I am more familiar with Doxygen & LDoc/LuaDoc.
Hello everybody!
My LPC Collection is open for everybody, so if you want to be a collaborator just write here :)
I'd be interested!
I noticed the "remove" option next to the "LPC Collection" on my submission & was confused for moment. Then I realized elmereges added me as a contributor to it. Thank you elmereges. :)
LPC-collection.png 8.8 Kb [5 download(s)]